Investigations into the influence of dustiness on dust explosions

A new safety characteristic the “dustiness” according to VDI 2263 – part 9 (Verein Deutscher Ingenieure, 2008) is investigated. Dustiness means the tendency of a dust to form clouds. The paper deals with the influence of the dustiness on vented dust explosions. In order to look into the effects of the dustiness on dust cloud formation and explosion properties experiments and simulations in a vertical dust dispersion glass tube apparatus were carried out.Preliminary explosion experiments showed that the dustiness has an influence on the reduced explosion pressure in a vented 75 L test apparatus. Dusts with comparable p_max and K_St values and different dustiness were tested. Dusts with higher dustiness produced higher overpressures, despite comparable safety characteristics. In order to verify the results for applications in the process industries further tests with different settings are planned as well as industrial scale experiments. Characteristics of the dust such as particle size, density, specific surface area and particle shape, which influence the dispersibility, have been determined experimentally.The Euler/Lagrange and the Euler/Euler approaches are compared for simulating an exemplary dust/air mixture. Especially sedimentation and the ability of the approaches to simulate the tendency of dust to stay airborne were investigated. The Euler/Lagrange approach is better suited for simulating local dust concentrations, particle size distributions and particle forces. It could be used to point out regions of high dust concentrations in a vessel. With the Euler/Euler method it is possible to achieve fast solutions for one specified diameter, but the simulated dust/air mixtures are always more homogenous than in reality. ANSYS CFX version 13 was used in all simulations.     

计算流体力学(CFD)中的迭代法及其并行计算方法

应用计算流体力学(CFD)方法分析事故原因已被广泛采用,笔者针对事故理论分析和流体计算过程中,运用CFD方法所存在计算量大的问题,分析和讨论了几种古典迭代法及其并行计算方法.     

Numerical study of the effect of obstacles on the spontaneous ignition of high-pressure hydrogen

A numerical simulation of the spontaneous ignition of high-pressure hydrogen in a duct with two obstacles on the walls is conducted to explore the spontaneous ignition mechanisms. Two-dimensional rectangular ducts are adopted, and the Navier–Stokes equations with a detailed chemical kinetic mechanism are solved by using direct numerical simulations. In this study, we focus on the effects of the initial pressure of hydrogen and the position of the obstacles on the ignition mechanisms. Our results demonstrate that the presence of obstacles significantly changes the spontaneous ignition mechanisms producing three distinct ignition mechanisms. In addition, the position of the obstacles drastically changes the interaction of shock waves with the contact surface, and spontaneous ignition may take place at a relatively low pressure in some obstacle positions, which is attributed to the propagation direction and interaction timing of two reflected shock waves.     

Validation of geometry modelling approaches for offshore gas dispersion simulations

Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) codes are widely used for gas dispersion studies on offshore installations. The majority of these codes use single-block Cartesian grids with the porosity/distributed-resistance (PDR) approach to model small geometric details. Computational cost of this approach is low since small-scale obstacles are not resolved on the computational mesh. However, there are some uncertainties regarding this approach, especially in terms of grid dependency and turbulence generated from complex objects. An alternative approach, which can be implemented in general-purpose CFD codes, is to use body-fitted grids for medium to large-scale objects whilst combining multiple small-scale obstacles in close proximity and using porous media models to represent blockage effects. This approach is validated in this study, by comparing numerical predictions with large-scale gas dispersion experiments carried out in DNV GL's Spadeadam test site. Gas concentrations and gas cloud volumes obtained from simulations are compared with measurements. These simulations are performed using the commercially available ANSYS CFX, which is a general-purpose CFD code. For comparison, further simulations are performed using CFX where small-scale objects are explicitly resolved. The aim of this work is to evaluate the accuracy and efficiency of these different geometry modelling approaches.     

石化行业控制室承爆风险评估方法研究

针对传统的气体爆炸风险评估方法的不足之处,提出采用一种基于CFD技术的气体爆炸风险评估方法,对某煤气化厂区氢气爆炸对控制室造成的风险进行模拟计算与预测分析.并把研究结果与传统的TNT当量法、Multi-Energy方法预测结果进行比较.结果表明,该方法能考虑到密集管道与复杂装置布局、气云大小等因素对爆炸超压的影响,且能用于超压波的近场预测,以及确定空间不同位置处的爆炸超压,更适用于石化行业控制室的承爆风险评估.     

独头巷道射流通风流场CFD模拟研究

独头巷道压入式通风是有限空间的受限贴附射流.独头巷道通风风流流场是通风理论和通风设计的基础.笔者根据流体动力学和射流理论,建立了独头巷道压入武受限贴附射流通风的紊流k-ε数学模型,分析了计算边界条件,并应用计算流体动力学(CFD)的方法模拟了独头巷道射流通风流场,从理论上得出了独头巷道有限空间受限贴附射流通风的规律,为研究独头巷道合理并有效通风提供了新的理论依据.     

基于计算流体力学的配对进近尾流安全间隔研究

为解决多变环境条件下通过单纯数学建模方法预测尾流存在精度不足的问题,首先,研究近距平行跑(CSPRs)道配对进近(PA)模式尾流安全区的基本要求;然后,通过建立运输机机翼尾涡流场,采用k-ε模型数值模拟计算侧风影响下的翼尖涡涡量场,得到配对前机尾涡空间分布特征,分析PA尾流安全区,提出基于计算流体力学(CFD)的PA尾流安全间隔计算方法;最后,以上海虹桥机场为例,采用数值模拟方法计算配对前后机分别为B747-400和B737-800,侧风风速3 m/s时的情况,验证该方法的科学性和有效性。结果表明:侧风可以加剧尾流的横向位移,配对后机可在配对前机上风方向跟进飞行避开尾流影响;当飞行环境一定时,前机翼展是PA最大尾流安全间隔值的决定性因素;基于CFD的PA尾流安全间隔计算结果能较好地拟合试验测量值,提高PA尾流安全间隔值的计算精确性;相同配对机型条件下,基于CFD的PA尾流安全间隔计算结果远小于现行尾流间隔标准。     

A study of the blast wave shape from elongated VCEs

Elongated congestion patterns are common at chemical processing and petroleum refining facilities due to the arrangement of processing units. The accidental vapor cloud explosion (VCE) which occurred at the Buncefield, UK facility involved an elongated congested volume formed by the trees and undergrowth along the site boundary. Although elongated congested volumes are common, there have been few evaluations reported for the blast loads produced by elongated VCEs. Standard VCE blast load prediction techniques do not directly consider the impact of this congested volume geometry versus a more compact geometry.This paper discusses an evaluation performed to characterize the blast loads from elongated VCEs and to identify some significant differences in the resulting blast wave shape versus those predicted by well-known VCE blast load methodologies (e.g., BST and TNO MEM). The standard blast curves are based on an assumption that the portion of the flammable gas cloud participating in the VCE is hemispherical and located at grade level. The results of this evaluation showed that the blast wave shape for an elongated VCE in the near-field along the long-axis direction is similar to that for an acoustic wave generated in hemispherical VCEs with a low flame speed. Like an acoustic wave, an elongated VCE blast wave has a very quick transition from the positive phase peak pressure to the negative phase peak pressure, relative to the positive phase duration. The magnitude of the applied negative pressure on a building face depends strongly on the transition time between the positive and negative phase peak pressures, and this applied negative phase can be important to structural response under certain conditions. The main purpose of this evaluation was to extend previous work in order to investigate how an elongated VCE geometry impacts the resultant blast wave shape in the near-field. The influence of the normalized flame travel distance and the flame speed on the blast wave shape was examined. Deflagration and deflagration-to-detonation transition regimes were also identified for unconfined elongated VCEs as a function of the normalized flame travel distance and flame speed attained at a specified flame travel distance.     

泄爆容器中粉尘爆炸的试验研究与数值模拟

为了解泄爆容器中粉尘爆炸的发展过程,采用试验和数值模拟相结合的方法对玉米淀粉在圆柱形容器内的泄爆过程进行研究.数值模型采用欧拉-拉格朗日方法模拟粉尘爆炸的两相流问题,通过求解非稳态的湍流两相反应流守恒方程对试验进行二维仿真.试验和模拟结果表明,点火位置对爆炸发展过程有明显影响,点火位置离泄爆口越远,容器中的最大泄爆压力Pred,max越高.在粉尘爆炸的安全防护设计中,应把点火位置作为重要影响因素之一加以考虑.     

概率火灾安全分析方法研究

为分析和评估火灾对设备、建筑物等敏感目标结构安全的影响,结合化工定量风险评估方法和气体爆炸概率安全分析方法,提出概率火灾安全分析策略和实施流程.该方法包括火灾危害辨识、泄漏速率计算、火灾后果模拟、频率分析、绘制频率超越热载荷曲线、结构响应分析等关键步骤.以某柴油罐区为例,通过频率分析和火灾模拟,绘制出频率超越热载荷曲线,假定火灾风险可接受准则为10 -4/a,求得对应的可信热载荷为21 kW/m2,并以此值作为结构热响应分析的输入参数.火灾概率安全分析方法侧重于描述火灾热辐射强度及其对应的发生可能性,判定敏感目标遭遇的可信火灾热载荷强度和结构热响应行为,评估消防减灾措施效果,确保结构完整性和可用性,不评价工艺系统潜在火灾风险的高低.     

Numerical simulation of deflagration-to-detonation transition in large confined volumes

A methodology for the computationally efficient CFD simulation of hydrogen-air explosions (including transition to detonation) in large volumes is presented. The model is validated by means of the largest ever conducted indoor DDT experiments in the RUT facility. A combination of models is proposed with a particular focus on the influence of flame-instabilities, especially of thermal-diffusive nature, which are crucial for very lean mixtures. Excellent agreement is achieved in terms of flame acceleration. The quality of DDT predictions itself depends on the underlying mechanism. Whereas DDT by shock-focusing is successfully simulated on under-resolved meshes, DDT by local explosions in the vicinity of the turbulent flame brush remains a challenge. Adaptive mesh refinement therefore emerges as a key technique to resolve more of the essential phenomena at reasonable computational costs affordable by industry. Finally, a generic case demonstrates the influence of mixture inhomogeneity, which can promote flame acceleration and ultimately DDT.